Multicultural losing their Edge by playing it safe.

In today’s society “urban” and multicultural influencers have permeated pop culture. Hip Hop moguls and urban brands have taken to the general market more so now than ever. Many top-tier brands have sourced multicultural marketing agencies to reach a coveted multicultural audience and add an urban “touch” to their mainstream campaigns. However, if 2007 was any indicator, then 2008 will see a dramatic decrease in blue chip brands seeking out multicultural agencies to lead these campaigns.

For example: Multicultural mainstay Carol H. Williams lost much of their work with GM to general marketing agencies (Leo Burnett in this case).

While urban has gone mainstream, the stumbling of today’s multicultural agencies centers around the fact that they are putting cultural sensitivity before great ideas and are thus losing their value proposition to today’s larger brands, according to Joseph Anthony, CEO of Vital Marketing.

Joseph Anthony criticizes the multicultural marketing industry for relying on trying to stay politically correct rather than truly innovating the marketplace—pointing out how a Crispin Porter helped to shake up the general agency marketplace. Anthony sees a tremendous void for agencies like his, as Vital is shifting from being primarily experientially focused (viral, street and event marketing), to multicultural general services—stretching the limits with campaigns that reach a multicultural audience in a way that general market agencies cannot as Vital has done with their below the line work for major consumer brands. Furthermore for the exact reason why many multicultural shops are losing business to the mainstream agencies, Joseph Anthony believes there is a tremendous opportunity to gain even more market share.

“The fact that minority culture drives so much of today’s marketplace should increase the value of the multi-cultural agencies not lower it. General market shops taking over these roles highlights the fact that multicultural agencies are playing from the same playbook that they’ve been working from for the last decade,” said Anthony. “For a Hispanic agency to merely focus on putting out a brand’s message in the proper language and tone instead of speaking in a culturally relevant fashion fails to show the creativity that once drove the multicultural marketing space.”

“With the permeation of urban culture, the top multicultural agencies should be winning more general market work instead of losing the multicultural business,” says Anthony. “Ultimately it’s easier for ethnic shops to scale up to general market then for general to scale down to ethnic… we as multicultural marketers just need to step up to the plate to give brands a reason to make us an integral part of their roster.”